Access for all small businesses must comply with new disability regulations.

• Author: Larmour, Adelle
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS - Legislation

Araft of new accessibility standards is just around the corner for Ontario's private sector businesses, not-for-profit organizations and any other service provider with at least one employee.

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January 1, 2012 is the deadline for the implementation of the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service, the first of five standards laid out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act: 2005 (AODA), an act that has been almost 20 years in the making and will help level the playing field for people with disabilities.

It is a set of rules created for businesses and organizations in Ontario to follow to identify remove and prevent barriers to accessibility.

Barriers are obstacles that make shopping, working, going to a movie or taking public transit difficult or impossible for people with disabilities.

Approximately 1.85 million people in the province, or one in seven, have a disability With the aging boomer population, those numbers are anticipated to increase to one in five over the next 20 years.

The Ontario government has set a target date of 2025-to have full implementation of all standards: customer service, built environment, employment, information and communications, and transportation.

More recently three of the five accessibility standards--information and communications, employment and transportation--have been integrated to help streamline and eliminate overlap between standards and to minimize regulatory concerns with which organizations will have to comply.

The new regulation is open for a 45-day public review period, concluding October 16, 2010.

Soon, private sector businesses will be required to establish policies, practices and procedures on providing goods and services to people with disabilities and to train employees on those policies.

Posted on the Ministry of Community and Social Services website is a 14-page guide that provides a step-by-step "how-to" for small businesses and organizations that will have to comply within the next year.

Dorothy Macnaughton, Sault Ste. Marie advocate, volunteer and owner of Accessibility and Diversity Training, has some concerns that smaller businesses, churches, and other not-for-profits in smaller communities are unaware of the approaching standards.

Macnaughton has been closely involved in government committees, providing valuable feedback as the standards have been developed. She even offers consulting and training services to other companies interested in...